


Do Not Go Gentle

by Inkgeist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Post - Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 22:56:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1835284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkgeist/pseuds/Inkgeist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus and Remus get another chance after death frees them from their pasts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do Not Go Gentle

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the title is shamelessly borrowed from Mr.Dylan Thomas, the story inspired by the poem. I wrote this after DH when I was devastated by the ending and I found myself having trouble writing about characters that were/presumed dead.  
> This was my Dia de Los Muertos offering to them that year and submitted for the Resurrection Fest 2007 on LJ.

To deem it 'resurrection' would be an act of hubris. The most profane kind of insult to an old friend by not acknowledging the difference between mercy and forgiveness. She was in a hurry, but her smile was no less genuine when she pulled back her hood and her hair, once Phoenix orange, spilled forward.

He realized just how close he had come when the hand that offered him help up felt almost solid. They stood there holding hands for just an instant before they turned to his blood-soaked body.

"I have come to tell you that it is not your time," she said. She knelt down, poured the contents of a vial over the wound and placed a glowing white strand at his temple. Her voice was meant to remain neutral, but, still as kind as she was in life, she let him hear her regret.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, but the agony the words caused him alerted him to being in his body once again. Lily shook her head. "Thank you." Her voice faded with her image, or perhaps the pain had caused his eyes to close, because he only ever heard a familiar voice say,

"We're even then, Snivellus."

Severus supposed that grudging respect would suffice. The pain in his throat excused his silence.

 

                                                                                         *

 

Remus realized Harry could no longer see them when he dropped the stone. James nodded to Lily and he and Padfoot kept pace with Harry as Lily led him towards the castle.

"'Dora-" Lily held up a hand to silence him, and he wasn't a little surprised to note he could no longer see her under the hood of her cloak. As she took his arm, the forest fell behind them and they were in the Great Hall. Her hooded figure knelt before his body and brushed the hair from his face. She pointed to his left shoulder, and he came closer. She pointed again - the exact spot where he had been bitten, and he understood. Drawing the rune for werewolf over his heart, Remus found himself opening his eyes to see his friends standing above him, waving good bye. Another red-headed figure came into his line of vision, his earring glinting in the candle light.

"Don't speak." Had Remus not seen Bill move his lips, he would not believe the other man had spoken. "Your human blood needs to spill on a certain half-moon for the curse to be broken, or else have the curse break you," Bill murmured, taking a deep breath and then another. "Teddy… is not your responsibility."

Remus nodded, it wasn't news to him when Teddy smelled so much like Bill. He offered Remus a hand, helping him up, and the world spun out of focus. Remus decided that he preferred the post-transformation symptoms to this. Once steady on his feet, he nodded at Bill again and began to sneak out of the castle. It almost seemed too easy to just walk away. It was wrong, cowardly...but hadn't he wanted to do just that not too long ago? No, his desire to be free went further back. Much further back.

Footsteps brought him back from his musings, and he hid in the shadows behind a column.

He couldn't help but smile at the way Oliver Wood pulled Percy Weasley into his arms - as if to make time stand still so that they could never be separated again.

Remus quickly made his way out of the castle bitterly wanting to believe that if he'd had the courage to reach out for the wizard he loved, things would have been entirely different. He never expected to see that wizard slowly making his way out from beneath the Whomping Willow. He could not believe that the place where everything fell apart was going to be the setting for where they would find a new beginning.


End file.
